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American Morning

Homeland Defense: FBI Warns of Terrorist Attacks in Coming Days

Aired October 12, 2001 - 09:02   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: As if we didn't have enough to worry about already, now comes the latest warning from the FBI of more possible attacks in the next several days, maybe in this country, maybe abroad; the agency gives no specifics, but says the warning in fact does apply to U.S. interests at home and abroad.

Michael Okwu is standing by outside our bureau. He's been talking to folks passing by all morning long.

How nervous are people this morning, Michael?

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Paula, I would say that people are definitely very nervous, and they go from being very nervous at some points actually to being not nervous at all. They say that they are very concerned about what's going on here in New York City, and across the country. But they also say that life has to go on.

I have showed the paper to some people this morning who hadn't quite seen it yet; you might have seen the news last night. And the papers in New York have a way of either simplifying things or getting right down to the bottom the bottom line, to the point, depending what your opinion is. Here is the cover of the "New York Post"; I want to make sure viewers get a look at this, because to some people this says it all: "Red alert: FBI says new terror attack in days."

We talked to so many people on the street here who tell us that they are just downright scared. One fellow said to me I'm scared, I can't wait just to go back to New Jersey where I know that the terrorists are not really that interested in visiting.

Some other people told us that it doesn't really matter; so much has happened in the last month or so people have already acclimated themselves I think to the point that they are living in a new kind of world.

I was at a social function last night where we were all supposed to be celebrating the fact that a good friend of ours had first book published, yet the overriding tone of the event was more of concern about what we do in the coming days and potentially in coming months. There are so many people who there who said we now, in fact, live in Israel. That might be overstating things, but the feeling among everyone, whether they're completely scared or whether they say I don't really care is that life is going to go on -- Paula. ZAHN: OK, Michael, thanks so much for that report.

Let's head over to Capitol Hill, where Kate Snow is now standing by, to give us a better idea of how intense the security is there today.

Good morning, Kate.

KATE SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

It has been fairly intense since September 11. In fact, Capitol Hill police have been on a high state of alert ever since that day. We are now told by authorities on Capitol Hill that they are considering doing something rather different; they're considering big in military troops as well, Paula, to reinforce or to supplement the activities of the Capitol Hill police. This is because Capitol Hill police officers have been working incredibly long hours; they have been working at least 12-hour shifts right now, and many of them I have been talking to working 16 hours, even 20 hours, some pulling double shifts. They need a break.

They also need to be able to get out of here and get some specialized training. So what they are thinking about doing is having military troops -- either National Guard or perhaps army troops even -- coming in here, taking the place of some of these Capitol police officers so that they can rotate them out and give them to some specialized anti-terrorism type training.

This would be a temporary move, we need to stress, even if they did decide to do this. One senior senator I spoke with about this potential change says that this is important, because you don't want the U.S. Capitol to become like a fortress.

Paula, back to you.

ZAHN: All right Kate, thanks.

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